While the current budget climate demands that states make smart fiscal decisions, arbitrarily cutting Medicaid would be a bad decision for North Carolina, the report concludes. It would be a bad decision for the nearly 514,000 North Carolina seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid, and it would be a bad decision for their families. There are several reasons for this, including:

· Medicaid is the major payer of long-term care, both nationally and in North Carolina.

· Cutting Medicaid would affect the availability of long-term care for all North Carolinians.

Right now, nearly $700 million in state dollar Medicaid cuts are on the table. Billions more in cuts to federal funding for NC Medicaid have been proposed by Republicans in Washington.

“Cuts of this magnitude will inevitably affect the services so many of the most vulnerable North Carolinians depend upon,” said Adam Searing, director of the NC Health Access Coalition.

As this FamiliesUSA report makes clear, the majority of money spent in the Medicaid program goes to fund long term care services, whether in a nursing home or other institution or provided at home.